Autograph letter signed “Eddie” to his sister-in-law Edith, Mrs George Colley

by Edward Pomeroy Colley

$110,000 · Offered by Biblio

8 pages in-8 in black ink on two double leaves with vignette and heading of the Titanic, watermarked "White Star" with a star. Long and superb letter written aboard the Titanic by a passenger who was going to die in the sinking on his birthday. Mr Edward Pomeroy Colley was born in Celbridge, Co Kildare, Ireland on 15 April 1875. He came from a well-to-do Anglo-Irish Church of Ireland family and his parents were Henry Fitzgeorge Colley (b. 1827), a magistrate and landowner, and Elizabeth Isabella Wingfield (b. 1832) who had married in Abbeyleix, Queen's County (modern-day Co Laois) on 12 August 1858 before seemingly settling in Lucan, Dublin where several of their children were born. Edward's known siblings were: Elizabeth Maria (1860-1895, later Mrs Frederick Selwyn Copleston), Florence Isabella (1864-1912, later Mrs Henry Cole Bowen), George Pomeroy Arthur (1866-1933), Laura Emily (1867-1942), William Wingfield (1868-1947), Gerald Henry Pomeroy (1870-1924), Constance Helena (1871-1912) and Gertrude Theodosia (1873-1934, later Mrs Alberic Arthur Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes). The Colley family had established itself in Ireland in the 16th century and served under Henry VIII through Elizabeth I. His grandfather, George Francis Colley (1797-1879) was a commander in the Royal Navy and was the third son of the 4th Viscount Harberton, John Pomeroy (1758-1833). His uncle George Pomeroy Colley (1835-1881) was a highly decorated British Army Officer who became the Governor and Commander

• Year: 1912

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